`Beat' Crazy Weston Saga Continues With Tour, New Disc Showcase

WHAT'S UP

February 23, 1996|by JOE WARMINSKY III (A free-lance story for The Morning Call)

Over the last few years, the members of Weston have become the Lehigh Valley's punk rock ambassadors, as they've toured the United States a few times and sold almost 10,000 copies of their 1994 debut, "A Real Life Story Of Teenage Rebellion."

But the Weston saga -- which, at times, has the air of a corndog post-modern comedy sketch --has only begun. After a minor bidding war between several independent and major labels (including MCA and BMG), the band decided to drop its first label, Gern Blandsten, and in late 1995 signed with the New York-based indie Go Kart.

Go Kart gave Weston full artistic control and national distribution (through Caroline), plus the low-key feel of a smaller label. The band, which plays tomorrow night with Shades Apart, Lifetime and Shift at Spanky's Club in Stroudsburg, will offer a preview of its third album, "Got Beat Up," which was recorded at Acqrock studios in Utica, N.Y., and will be released on April 1.

Beyond the record deal, Go Kart hooked Weston to a European tour with Epitaph Records up-and-comers Ten Foot Pole and The Voodoo Glow Skulls. Europe may never be the same.

Guitarist/vocalist Dave Weston, bassist/vocalist Chuck Saltern, drummer Jeremiah Anastasio and band manager Sandee Borgman flew to Germany on New Year's Eve without guitarist Jim Snyder, whose passport was delayed by December's federal government shutdowns and the Blizzard of 1996.

The band played as a trio until Snyder arrived on Jan. 13 for a show in Amsterdam. By that time, the others had already given Germany a lesson on rock 'n' roll lunacy, Weston-style.

Borgman said Saltern and Weston's Pennsylvania Dutch background and high school German classes gave the pair all the language skills they needed to give their stage banter a Teutonic flavor.

"They know German that their grandmothers would have taught them, like, how to count and say silly food things," Borgman said. "And the German kids really appreciate anybody who makes an effort to speak their language. Dave (Weston), he'd be telling these stories -- and he's capable of interjecting German into the English at a one-to-three ratio -- and he'd say stuff like, `The girl on the Autobahn had eyes as beautiful as red potato salad.' "

The German kids reacted accordingly. "Watching the kids' expressions in the audience was wonderful," Borgman said. "They'd be down on their knees, laughing ...' "

The tour, which wrapped up early this week, also included stops in Paris and in Barcelona, Spain, for a show with GWAR, the infamous shock-punk band from Richmond, Va.

Back in December, when Weston was recording "Got Beat Up," the prospect of a European tour was a bit scary; Go Kart procured the tour and the dates, but couldn't guarantee the band any money. Band members had to finance the tour themselves -- or with merchandise sales and gate receipts.

But fear and confusion are nothing new to the band. "Got Beat Up," according to the band, goes after the traditional Weston themes -- growing up, facing the world, dealing with the absurdities of society -- but with tighter, more focused music.

"We tried to go in to the studio and wail like we do live, but that didn't work," Weston said in December during an interview at Acqrock. "Now the music's a little more locked-in. I think we're intimidated by the word `production.' We have been for a long time."

Saltern agreed. "We had the songs better-written before we came in here," he said. "We were vowing we were going to do an album with more of a live feel ... but we're just not that talented ... we play too fast live."

If the "Got Beat Up" album cover is any indication, Weston continues its youth-culture-gone-dorky theme in many ways. The artwork, done by Anastasio's cousin, John Michael Jones, features two professional wrestlers, one of whom is getting his face pummeled into the mat.

Saltern makes no excuses for the band's tongue-in-cheek sense of arrested development.

"We definitely have a junior-high slant," the bassist said. "It was a funny place ... High school was a mess. It's one of the funniest places you go. They put a bunch of confused people together and try to give them skills to live their lives."

Weston said the alternatives to "Got Beat Up" included "Weston Forever" and "Laser Attack."

"A lot of these songs just come from scratch lyrics that I have, and I have a habit of putting `Friday night' in there somewhere," he said. "Maybe we should have called the album `Weston Takes on Friday Night.' "

"Got Beat Up" was partially inspired by the album's producer and Acqrock owner, Bob Acquavila, who Weston said taunted the band appropriately throughout the recording sessions. The band also was intrigued by Acqrock's supposed ghosts.

"I hear them all night," Saltern said. "I wanted to try different ghost-busting techniques, like putting flour down on the floor to see if there were ghost footprints, but (Acquavila) said it doesn't work."

Saltern said Acquavila declined to be interviewed.

"I don't know what happenned," Saltern joked. "He was wearing a black cloak and spoke to us only through a hand puppet."

Weston will play tomorrow night at Spanky's, 9th and Ann streets, Stroudsburg. Shades Apart, Lifetime and Shift also will perform. Doors open at 7 p.m. Information: (717) 424-7434.

Weston also will perform on March 1 at the Trocadero Theater, 10th and Arch streets, Philadelphia (information: (215) 923-ROCK) and on March 24 at Lehigh University's Stage Door, Bethlehem (information: (215) 441-8968).